Newswise — Accenture Chairman and CEO William D. Green and Stonyfield Farm Chairman, President, and CE-Yo Gary Hirshberg will be the commencement speakers during Babson College's commencement exercises on Saturday, May 19, 2007, at the Babson campus.
Honorary Degree recipients will be Estefano E. Isaias Sr., Chairman, TC Television, Guayaquil, Ecuador; Leo I. Higdon, Jr., President, Connecticut College; Irving W. Rabb, Former Stop & Shop Vice Chairman; William D. Green; and Gary Hirshberg.
Undergraduate Ceremony
William D. Green, Chairman and CEO, Accenture; commencement speaker and honorary degree recipient
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company.
In addition to chairing the board of directors, William D. Green is responsible for managing the company, formulating and executing long-term strategies, and for all interactions with clients, employees, investors and other stakeholders. He is Accenture's primary decision maker and policy maker, setting the tone for the company's values, ethics, and culture. He has served on Accenture's board of directors since its inception in 2001. Prior to becoming CEO, Green was Accenture's chief operating officer—Client Services with overall management responsibility for the company's operating groups. He has held executive positions in most of the company's operating groups. With expertise in the high-tech, aerospace and telecommunications industries, he was group chief executive of the Communications & High Tech operating group from 1999 to 2003. Under his leadership, the group grew to become the company's largest business unit. He was also group chief executive of the Resources operating group for two years. Earlier in his career, Green led the Manufacturing industry group and was managing partner for Accenture's practice in New England. He also served as country managing director for the United States. Green joined Accenture in 1977 and became a partner in 1986. He attended Dean College and is a member of its Board of Trustees. He holds a bachelor of science degree in economics and a master of business administration degree from Babson College. He and his wife have two children.
Estefano E. Isaias Sr., Chairman, TC Television, Guayaquil, Ecuador; honorary degree recipient
Estefano E. Isaias, Sr. is chairman of Cadena Ecuatoriana de Television, Seguros Rocafuerte, Zamora Gold Corp., Minera Gribipe S.A., Emilio Isaias Compañia Anonima de Comercio (EICA). Also, he is president of various business entities (broadcasting, media, investment, commercial, industrial, aquaculture and agricultural). He is a member of the International Advisory Board and serves on the Undergraduate and Marketing committees at Babson. He is active as a board member in Fundacion Cenaim, Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral, Junta de Beneficencia de Guayaquil, and chairman of Nahim Isaias Foundation, and Estefano Isaias D. Foundation. Additionally, he serves as honorary general consul to the Kingdom of Belgium. Isaias earned his BS from the Philadelphia College of Textile and Science and was a member of the undergraduate class of 1968 at Babson.
Leo I. Higdon, Jr., President, Connecticut College; honorary degree recipient
Leo I. Higdon, Jr. became the tenth president of Connecticut College on July 1, 2006. A strong advocate of liberal arts education as a preparation for diverse careers, Higdon was a Peace Corps volunteer and an investment banker before becoming a leader in higher education.
Higdon was president of the College of Charleston from 2001 to 2006, and oversaw that institution's transformation from a regional university to a nationally-known liberal arts and sciences institution. At Charleston, he oversaw rapid growth, managed extensive construction projects, expanded academic and co-curricular programs, and increased financial support for the university. Higdon earned a bachelor's degree in history from Georgetown University in 1968. Following graduation, he and his wife Ann spent two years in the Peace Corps, teaching in Malawi, Africa, where the first of their four children was born. He earned an M.B.A. in finance in 1972 from the University of Chicago.
In 1973, Higdon joined Salomon Brothers. He became vice chairman and member of the executive committee and managed the firm's global investment banking division. After 21 years with Salomon Brothers, Higdon was named dean of the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia. He left Darden to serve as president of Babson College in Wellesley, Mass.
Graduate Ceremony
Gary Hirshberg, Chairman, President, and CE-Yo, Stonyfield Farm; commencement speaker and honorary degree recipient
Stonyfield Farm is the world's leading organic yogurt producer, based in Londonderry, New Hampshire.
Gary Hirshberg, the husband of Meg Hirshberg, and the father of three teenage yogurt-eaters, is Chairman, President and CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farm. For the past 25 years, Gary has overseen Stonyfield Farm's phenomenal growth, from its infancy as a 7-cow organic farming school in 1983 to its current $260 million in annual sales. Stonyfield has enjoyed a compounded annual growth rate of 27.4% for more than eighteen years, by consistently producing a great-tasting product and using innovative marketing techniques that blend the company's social, environmental, and financial missions. In 2001, Stonyfield Farm entered into a partnership with Groupe Danone, and in 2005, Gary was named Managing Director of Stonyfield Europe, a joint venture between the two firms with brands in Ireland, the UK and France with more in development.
Gary joined Stonyfield Farm a few months after its start in 1983. Initially he also directed the Rural Education Center, the small organic farming school from which Stonyfield was spawned. Previously, in addition to serving as a Trustee of the farming school Gary had served as Executive Director of The New Alchemy Institute " a research and education center dedicated to organic farming, aquaculture and renewable energy. A New Hampshire native, Gary was one of the first graduates of Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, has received four honorary doctorates and won numerous awards for corporate and environmental leadership. He serves on several corporate and non-profit boards including Honest Tea, Sambazon, Peak Organic Brewing Company, Dannon Company, and Climate Counts. He is also the Chairman and co-founder of O'Naturals, a chain of natural fast food restaurants. In his spare time, he also serves as the President of the Express Soccer Club and he coaches a girls' under-15 premier travel soccer team, which keeps him humble and certain that he still has much to learn.
Irving W. Rabb, Former Stop & Shop Vice Chairman; honorary degree recipient
For nearly 50 years, Irving W. Rabb spent a business life-time with Stop & Shop Companies, Inc. This company started out as a corner grocer and, growing to a chain of more than 360 stores throughout New England, New York, and New Jersey, has served its customers for more than 85 years. Originally named Economy Grocery Stores, it was purchased as a failing chain of 15 small stores in 1917 by the Rabb family and in 1925 became a publicly owned company. The youngest of three brothers, Rabb joined them in 1935. Starting as a clerk, he assumed greater and greater responsibilities to serve ultimately as President. He retired in 1983 as vice chairman of the board and chairman of the executive committee. An active member of the Boston community, he has served as President of the Beth Israel Hospital and the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston, as President of the Supermarket Institute and its successor, the Food Marketing Institute, as a trustee and board member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Museum of Fine Arts, the Cambridge Foundation, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Hebrew College, Hebrew Senior Life, the New England Conservatory of Music, and Temple Israel of Boston. Rabb earned his AB cum laude from Harvard College in 1934. He also attended the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and received an honorary doctor of letters degree from Hebrew College.
Babson College Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., is recognized internationally as a leader in entrepreneurial management education. Babson grants BS degrees through its innovative undergraduate program, and grants MBA and custom MS and MBA degrees through the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College. Babson Executive Education offers executive development programs to experienced managers worldwide. For information, visit http://www.babson.edu.
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